What is "Health"

I found this image on the Facebook page of a cancer support group that I follow, and I think it sums up perfectly the agenda I have in front of me ... to bring all of these aspects of life into balance and focus to be a survivor.

It didn't hurt that there are a couple of shamrocks in here either that caught my eye :-)

But it's now the main focus of my medical oncologist's treatment of me ... the chemo has been administered, and she now has to focus on mind and body matters to keep me well. In a certain sense it's "all" we can do right now ... but that is also a very important thing to do, not just a last resort.

Even though I've had a good mindset throughout the worst of my times, and I'm generally a positive thinker ... I seem to struggle with being able to give a strong, resounding "Yes!" answer when someone learns that I've finished my treatments and they ask "Have they told you that you are cancer free?" The answer is yes ... in a medical sense, after 16 chemo treatments, a mastectomy and 33 radiation treatments ... the cancer that we knew existed in me has been eradicated through treatment and then the areas affected were physically removed from my body. Then, just as a safeguard, radiation treatment covered a block of my upper left chest and neck area to get rid of anything microscopic that might be left that could not be detected. I always feel like I say "Yes, but ..." and the hesitation is because I think that after getting to this point, the thought of recurrence will always hang over me. It's not negative thinking, it's reality.

I guess my pause to the question might be because I'm an educated patient, and perhaps the person asking thinks it's really that simple ... you had treatment, and now your cancer is gone. In reality, there is no "this too shall pass" in the world of cancer. Yes, the treatments pass ... but it's not that simple. There is no cure, the medical field works hard to do everything known to them and even tries a few things that are just coming on the horizon ... but the risk of recurrence is always there.

This coming week will mark 11 months since my diagnosis, I'm so close to making it full circle of a year. And I have come so far in that time ... I have seen what I hope will be the darkest of my days as a cancer patient, and now life starts fresh. On this day last year I didn't even know I had breast cancer, and today ... I'm a survivor.